I'm doing heads on my car and I came accross something that says that you have to warm the engine up, cool it down and retorque the head bolts. Does any body have experience doing that? Do you have to remove the cam carriers? Any advice would be appreciated !! Thanks!

You don't have to do that. Theres a torque process that involves 3 gradual increases but you shouldnt need to run the engine between them.

The FSM (1988 EA82) actually does say to warm the car up then retorque(not between torque steps, but after the third stage). There are lots of conflicting opinions on its necessity though.

This has been SOP for many car makers and gasket manufacturers for decades, at least until the "torque-to-yield" head bolts came about. It is generally referred to as a retorque.

 

In fact it was so common that some gasket maufacturers (e.g. FelPro?) started advertising their new HGs as NOT needing to be retorqued.

 

The new "torque to yield" head bolts don't require retorquing, and in fact shouldn't ever be retorqued/reused after the first torque down. It is also why HG sets for the engines that use them are so pricey, as they include a new set of bolts.

 

My advice is to follow the gasket manufacturer's instructions, whatever they are.